An Ethiopian Airlines jet with 202 passengers and crew on board was hijacked today by its co-pilot.
The 30-year-old man landed the Addis Ababa to Rome flight safely in Geneva before climbing out of a window on a rope and asking for asylum. The co-pilot had waited for his pilot to go to the lavatory and then locked himself in the cockpit. He took over the controls and diverted the Boeing 767-300 to Geneva.
A flight tracking app showed the jet circling over the Swiss city several times before coming in to land. Geneva airport chief executive Robert Deillon said the hijacking began over Italy, and two Italian fighter jets were scrambled to accompany the plane. He said passengers were probably unaware it had been hijacked.
After the plane landed all those on board were escorted by police one by one, their hands over their heads, from the plane and into a waiting bus.
They were searched twice and questioned by police. This is standard procedure in case a hijacker tries to pass himself off as a passenger. The co-pilot, who was unarmed, gave himself up and asked for asylum in Switzerland.
Geneva police spokesman Eric Grandjean said: “He went to the police forces who were on the ground close to the aircraft. He announced that he was himself the hijacker.”
Ethiopian Airlines said flight 702 “on scheduled service from Addis Ababa to Rome was forced to proceed to Geneva airport”.
All flights in and out of the airport were suspended for two hours but resumed after Swiss police reported: “Hijacker held, situation under control, no injuries.” Geneva prosecutor Olivier Jornot said federal authorities were investigating the hijacking and would press charges that could carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Ethiopian Airlines said it was making “immediate arrangements to fly its esteemed customers on board the flight to their intended destinations”.
The last hijacking at Geneva airport was that of an Air Afrique plane in 1985.
